1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) system, and more particularly, to sharing device capabilities of UPnP devices with a service provider entity.
2. Description of the Related Art
UPnP is a set of computer network protocols promulgated by the UPnP forum. Goals of UPnP are to allow access to connect seamlessly, and to simplify implementation of networks in home (e.g., data sharing, communications, and entertainment) and corporate environments. These goals are achieved by defining and publishing UPnP device control protocols built upon open, Internet-based communication standards.
UPnP technology can cater to a wide range of devices in a home network. UPnP technology provides discovery, control, and eventing mechanisms. Using these mechanisms, UPnP makes the availability and unavailability of the UPnP devices known to the other devices in the UPnP home network on the fly.
UPnP architecture allows peer-to-peer networking of Personal Computers (PCs), networked appliances, and wireless devices. It is a distributed, open architecture based on established standards such as, for example, Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and eXtendible Mark-up Language (XML). The UPnP architecture supports zero configuration networking. For example, a UPnP compatible device from any vendor can dynamically join a network, obtain an Internet Protocol (IP) address, announce its name, convey its capabilities upon request, and learn about the presence and capabilities of other devices. On the other hand, the UPnP devices can leave the UPnP home network automatically without leaving any unwanted state information.
The foundation of UPnP networking is IP addressing. Each UPnP device includes a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client, which searches for a DHCP server when the UPnP device is first connected to the UPnP network. If no DHCP server is available, the UPnP device assigns itself an IP address. If, during the DHCP transaction, the UPnP device obtains a domain name, for example, through a Domain Name System (DNS) server or via DNS forwarding, the UPnP device uses that name in subsequent network operations. If the UPnP device does not obtain a domain name, the UPnP device uses its IP address.
The UPnP forum also provides telephony services for extending user experience in a home to access telephony services such as, for example, a messaging service, a presence service, and a call handling (PS/CS call) service. As analogous to UPnP Device Architecture (DA), the UPnP telephony defines three kinds of devices: a Telephony Server (TS) that provides messaging and presence related services to the user, a Telephony Control Point (TelCP) to initiate actions provided by the TS, and a Telephony Client device (TC) for media related handling and providing input to and output from the TS.
UPnP telephony has defined an interface that allows telephony user to access telephony services using non-telephony devices. Therefore, in the UPnP home network environment, the telephony user may extend telephony services to UPnP devices such as, for example, non-telephony devices (e.g., television). Currently, telephony services delivered on the non-telephony devices may render a poor user experience to the telephony user, since the service provider is not aware of capabilities of the non-telephony devices in an UPnP home network environment. Typically, device capabilities are provided to the service provider via a User agent Profile (UaProf) provided by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). However, existing user agent profile does not allow the telephony user to communicate device capabilities of UPnP devices (i.e., non-telephony devices) with the service provider